Whappeh, agreed, but there is no reason to feed into those people. I am a huge Delta fan but completely understand that these things happen to every and all airlines, with old and new equiptment, despite maintenance practices...

I suprised the press reports didnt include how the pilot struggled with controls while managing to avoid a Hospital/school/old peoples home etc etc

I was on a Easyjet flight out of Inverness a few years back (i think around 1999/2000) and about 20-25 mins after departure, the captain made an announcement that a "section of wing" had been seen departing the aircraft by a passenger, and he was sending the FO to have a "jolly good look".

The FO had a look, and another announcement from the captain was made, saying that there was a panel missing from the wing, but we would be dropping down to around 15000ft and slowing the plane right down, to see if the flaps worked and if they did, how the aircraft handled when in that configuration.

All that happened without a hitch and in the Capts own words "we will try for Luton now", approach seemed normal, allthough the landing was very firm....Slowing down and turning off the runway, there seemed to be every fire truck and ambulance in a 30 mile radius of Luton waiting for is.

Children should only be allowed on aircraft if 1. Muzzled and heavily sedated 2. Go as freight

Sadly, bits falling off happens now and then- cowlings, leading edges, assorted access panels, etc. Human Factors training can have a big effect on these issues. When the safety nets are in place, and followed properly, these incidents are greatly reduced. One place I worked had an inflight turnback, failure to pressurize. No big surprise, considering there was a panel missing that was big enough for a person to crawl through! Between maintenance, and departure, at least 6 people had a chance to catch this problem, and no one saw it.
That's one of the drawbacks to nightshift maintenance, it's so damn easy to miss something when you're fatigued.

Unfortunately these things do happen. Funny thing is I was reading about a similar inciident in the latest Flying magazine. In this case a Cessna Jet was involved (in Van Nuys, CA). NTSB still isn't sure what exactly happened, but it seemed pretty much carelessness. What happened was, the nose baggage compartment wasn't secure and the hatch flew open on takeoff at around 200 AGL. The hatch didn't fly off, but instead, it appeared the which ever pilot was actually flying, slowed the aircraft (maybe so the hatch wouldn't separate from the aircraft?) on takeoff and stalled it and crashed the plane. Very interesting article.

Years ago I worked on a Piper Aztec, and the next day it crashed, killing 4, after the bag door opened in flight. Although my work had nothing to do with the door, it's a crappy feeling when an aircraft you've worked on goes down. Anyone in General Aviation can tell you similar stories.

Supposedly, even if a door opens, even in the nose, it's not supposed to be a sole cause for a crash on take off, as long as the pilot doesn't cut the power. It's a hard call to an armchair pilot like me, but I'm thinking I'll risk the forward door being ripped off and doing structural damage to the airframe, if it makes my chances of getting back on the ground safer. I digress, this is about the DL flight dropping a panel off. Their circumstances sound a lot different. I wasn't there, but this is probably something that even doing a preflight wouldn't catch. A lot of aircraft take quite a bit of stress, and are built for it. Things happen that not even the mx guys can catch. Anyone mention the crack in the cockpit windscreen of the UA flight from DEN to Calgary yesterday? It doesn't happen that often but happens more often than reported in the press. It's really no big deal. If you're around aircraft all day, you'll see a lot of quick fix "tape jobs". That's some good tape too. Then again that UA flight had to divert and the pax got bussed to Calgary. Even though, the press makes it sound a lot worse than it really is.

Quoting Avt007 (Reply 9):That's one of the drawbacks to nightshift maintenance, it's so damn easy to miss something when you're fatigued.

Plus the night shift maintenance guys have the lowest seniority due to bidding rules.

Quoting Avt007 (Reply 9):Sadly, bits falling off happens now and then- cowlings, leading edges, assorted access panels, etc. Human Factors training can have a big effect on these issues.

Especially when the bit falling off causes a Concorde to crash killing everybody on board, and the French government charges the maintenance workers at Continental with manslaughter.

Quoting Dano1977 (Reply 8):I was on a Easyjet flight out of Inverness a few years back (i think around 1999/2000) and about 20-25 mins after departure, the captain made an announcement that a "section of wing" had been seen departing the aircraft by a passenger, and he was sending the FO to have a "jolly good look".

I actually know a woman who wanted to sit over the wing so she can keep an eye on it and inform the captain if anything is amiss.

Quoting Eghansen (Reply 16):Especially when the bit falling off causes a Concorde to crash killing everybody on board, and the French government charges the maintenance workers at Continental with manslaughter.

Other than not really being applicable to the thread, you're also letting facts get in the way of trying to score a brownie point. It was a different scenario in that a knowingly wrong part was fitted to that aircraft......it was thus negligence and not merely an 'accidental occurrance'. (and which do happen). Get it correct!